


Fill My Soul

by Dlt111



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dorks in Love, Falling In Love, Fluff, Growing Up, Hardworking Katsuki Yuuri, Hardworking Victor Nikiforov, Ice Skating, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Light Angst, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Made For Each Other, Makkachin Lives, OC is abusive, Phichit Chulanont & Katsuki Yuuri Are Best Friends, Pining Victor Nikiforov, Protective Victor Nikiforov, Supportive Victor Nikiforov, Vicchan Lives, Victor Nikiforov Is In Love, Yakov is Victor's Spirit Dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-27 22:21:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18748261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dlt111/pseuds/Dlt111
Summary: "Yuuri gave me a gift of the cutest dog ever that will never die and will tell me how he's feeling. He gave me the ability to see what he sees. He's let me into his life so completely and fully that I can't help falling for him a little more each day. Because of this and all that we've been through, I dedicate this, my first gold medal to him! Yuuri is my inspiration and I will continue to dedicate everything I am and everything I have to making him happy. He's my sweetest soulmate after all~!"Or the Soulmate AU where Victor spends his whole life pining over Yuuri and helping him through the good times and the bad. Poor Yuuri is a sappy, happy puddle because of it.





	1. When Life Fills

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be switching POVs fairly frequently, but I'll make it obvious when the POV changes. Obviously time skips are a thing.
> 
> Also, sorry for the short first chapter.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor's POV, Short, but that's because his life outside of Yuuri is empty. Also, edited Victor's age to be almost 4 years older than Yuuri, canon compliance maintained.

“Victor, where’d you get this little stuffed animal?” Nannies had always annoyed Victor, but he knew better than to chase this one off. This one hardly ever paid attention to him and that’s just how he liked it. He loved to get away from the house and play in the garden and her inattention made it possible much more often than the last one who watched him like a hawk. This was one of the few times that he’d caught her attention, but he didn’t know how to explain it.

 

“I don’t know… It just popped up in front of me and started dancing around.” The woman stared at him with obvious suspicion, but, as if to prove the validity of his claim, the little brown poodle doll jumped up and barked as it clamored up his chest and then dived at his throat, disappearing without a trace and without any discomfort.

 

“Oh my! V-Victor! Wh-when did that dog show up?!” the nanny asked, insistent.

 

“J-Just a little bit ago…” Worry tinged his speech, but he was only three and a half, nearly four; how could he know that the woman was witnessing something that only 10% of the world’s population experienced?

“Come, come, Victor. Your father MUST know about this! He will be most interested to know about that dog. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. Let’s get some warm milk before we go.”

 

A half an hour later and a cup of warm milk to calm Victor, his father settled across from him, prepared to tell him all about the phenomenon regarding the dog.

 

“Vitya, my son, it seems you’re going to be one of the very rare people in this world who gets to experience having a soulmate - a person who is perfect for you and who can make you happier than anything else. They’re also called your one true love.” Artur, the stern Russian man with jet black hair looked at his son with calculating eyes, trying to decipher how his son would react. Artur cursed his own inattentiveness to his son, realizing just how little he knew about the boy anymore.

 

“I get a soul...mate? Made just for me? Wow! That’s amazing! Papa! Papa! I want to go meet my soulmate right now! Can we go now?!” Reassured by the silver head bouncing in barely restrained excitement, Artur relaxed into his chair and sipped on his tea slowly. It was at moments like this that he could see just how little of himself was in his son, the thought making his heart ache.

 

“I’m afraid we can’t, Vitya, but not because I don’t want to take you. You see, since that dog just arrived it means your soulmate was just born. They may not even be named yet for all we know.  However,” he smirked, leaning forward, “you can learn plenty about them and the gift that your bond has given you.”

 

“Gift? You mean the dog that jumped in my throat, Papa?” The tiny hand resting on his throat fiddled with the skin there, wondering how to get it to come out again.

 

“Yes, but the dog is only one part of this gift. The dog is your main connection to your soulmate for now. The dog’s actions and attitudes are a reflection of how your soulmate is feeling. When it’s inside of you like it is now, you receive your soulmate’s feelings. When it’s outside of you, it can help you disconnect from their feelings - like if they’re grumpy but you’re in a good mood and don’t want to deal with that bad mood - or if you want to send your feelings to them, even if they’re just weak feelings like you’re calm and relaxed. The dog works off of your thoughts, Vitya, so just think about the dog being outside of you and it is. Think of it being inside of you and it is. Think of it sending your feelings and it will, same with thinking about receiving feelings.”

 

“Really?” the boy pressed as he held out his hand and saw the dog form on his palm. “Wow! Wow! Papa! Papa! It came!”

 

“Yes, it did. That’s the main gift you get from your soulmate. You get a second gift, too, though hopefully it’s not one you’ll use much. When your soulmate’s health is bad, or they’re hurt, you’ll see a color around the outside of your vision. It tells you when your soulmate is in trouble. For example, when your mother was still alive, I would see red for just a moment whenever she cut her finger making dinner. I would know how bad it was by how much the red took over my vision and for how long it stayed. Now that your mother is no longer with us I see grey coloring my vision. If you ever see lots of red, blue, or green, it means there’s something really wrong with your soulmate.”

 

“I don’t want anything to be wrong with them…” A soft hand clasped Victor’s tiny shoulder.

 

“That leads us to the price of these gifts. Victor, as a man and as a soulmate, it’s your responsibility to provide well for your soulmate and make them happy and healthy. It gets a lot easier to do that as you grow older. From this day forward you will occasionally be able to see what your soulmate sees when you close your eyes. As you both grow up more and your bodies and minds mature, you’ll be able to see their vision just by thinking about it. If you meet and touch your soulmate before you get to that level, you’ll instantly be able to do it. And before you ask, no, I don’t know where your soulmate is. Part of the fun is that you get to go searching for them with the clues that their visions give you.”

 

Victor considered what his father had said to him and decided that his soulmate would get the best soulmate in the whole world. He’d study real hard, get a good job, and do something to get famous so it’s easier to find him.

 

*****

Life was calm for the most part as his soulmate grew. Makkachin, the dog that Victor got when his soulmate was born, was mostly excitable and happy for the first three years of his soulmate’s life. The few times that the puppy seemed frustrated, Victor would practice sending good feelings over to the younger person, hopefully helping them through their moment.

 

There wasn’t a day that went by that Victor didn’t experiment with the soulmate bond somehow. Some days it was just calming his destined partner, other days it was experimenting with Makkachin herself. He found that the dog could become larger or smaller as he willed it, but if she got too big, he would become exhausted a lot faster than if she were small. By the time Victor started school, he’d perfected control over Maakchin and had her out often just to watch how happy she always was.

 

The first time he saw his first vision share with his love, he was studying in his father’s library. He had been sending a calming sensation through Makkachin to his chosen one who seemed to be feeling anxious when a simple flash of an image with a tall man bending down to pat the child’s head crossed his vision. It was brief, but Victor willed himself to savor the image, trying to pick out clues as to where his lover had been. There had been writing on the tall man’s uniform, but it was a script that the boy had been unfamiliar with.

 

Scrambling off his chair, the small boy rushed to the bookshelves and began glancing through the titles, looking for similar characters. He came back with three different languages. The inattentive nanny chose that moment to come check on him, tilting her head as she looked at the books on the table.

 

“Victor… what are you looking at?”

 

“I just had a vision of my soulmate. They are in a country with this kind of writing… Here, this is one of the letters I saw. The rest were really hard to read and write.” The squiggly character he wrote was a pale imitation of what he saw, but he had hope that his nanny would be useful this time.

 

“Oh… this is the Japanese character ‘no’. Your soulmate is in Japan, Victor.” With a bright heart-shaped grin, the boy slipped off his chair again, bounding over to the bookshelf with language books.

 

“Then I’ll learn Japanese! Helga! Go tell father I need a Japanese tutor!”

 

“Your father will want you to learn English still. Are you alright with learning both languages at the same time?”

 

“Why don’t I learn just learn them all?” he asked as he took the beginner book back to his table.

 

“Learning all of the world’s languages would be impossible… but your father may have a few that he suggests would be good for your future. Want me to get him to enroll you in as many languages classes as he thinks is good?”

 

“Sure! I’ll learn lots of languages in case my soulmate likes to travel!” Helga left the boy to his own devices, laughing softly when the boy realized the book was too hard to read at his age.

 

*****

The next time that Victor saw his soulmate’s vision was two years later. His soulmate was five and was in a dance studio staring into a mirror as he tried to hold the position his teacher had put him into. He was a small chubby child with black hair and wide cinnamon eyes. The little determined expression on his face made Victor squeal at the cuteness.

 

Victor watched with fright as the small child lost balance and began toppling over, but a fluffy wolf cub cushioned the landing, keeping his soulmate from harm. He noticed the wolf cub seemed to have his hair color and eye color. The boy couldn’t understand why his poodle was a different coloration from his soulmate, but when the child giggled and cuddled into the wolf’s fur looking in the mirror, he could tell that the dog was a perfect spiritual representation of the boy.

 

As the vision faded, Victor hummed happily, adding dancing to the list of things he would do. It would only take a year of ballet for his teacher to pull him aside. “Vitya, you are good at this and you seem to take my lessons seriously, but I think you would be better suited for dancing on a different stage.”

 

“What do you mean Lilia? Am I not good enough for this stage?”

 

“It’s not that you aren’t suited for this stage, it’s that you could dance even more beautifully on the ice.”

 

The male gave pause there and began thinking the offer over. “Do you think my soulmate would be happy to see me on the ice if they kept dancing on the stage?”

 

“Vitya, if they’re a dancer, they’ll see the beauty in your ice dancing and love it as much as you would love watching them dance on stage.” With a determined nod Victor held out his hand.

 

“I accept. How do I begin skating?”

 

Six months into his skating lessons with Lilia’s ex-husband Yakov, Victor was on the ice running through his figures when he was hit with another vision from his soulmate. The boy was also on the ice, but seemed less sure of his legs than Victor was. The wolf beside him had grown a bit bigger and did its best to keep him up and steady. A kindly middle-aged man skated into his line of vision and took his hands, leading him forward. Victor saw the red in his mate’s eyes before he felt the pain in his own body and lost his connection.

 

A groan was torn from his throat as his hand traveled to his arm to find a gash there. Another inexperienced skater lay sprawled out in front of him, her skate obviously what had cut him.  “Ah, these visions can be a bit dangerous it seems,” he whispered to himself as he applied pressure and waited for help.

 

The stitches and subsequent scar on his arm weren’t things he hated. In fact, he like the scar. Each time he looked at it he was reminded of how he’d gotten it and that it was proof that his bond with his soulmate was progressing. It turns out that it was also a turning point for him. After that day he was more able to control the visions, willing them to him rather than just being taken with them. He couldn’t watch more than a few minutes each day, but he cherished each glimpse he got of his lover’s life. It was obvious that the boy was well-loved and that he himself worked hard all the time. It only motivated Victor to keep trying harder and harder as well.

 

*****

When Victor turned 11 and his soulmate was eight, he began noticing his soulmate was increasingly anxious and upset. Something had changed in his life, but Victor couldn’t see much different from the ten minutes a day he could see in his lover’s vision. The boy still seemed to be skating, dancing, studying, and exercising like always, but something was coloring those experiences with anxiety and he wasn’t sure what had changed. It wasn’t until a few weeks into those turbulent times that the answer presented itself in a well-timed vision peek.

 

An angry man stood above the boy, hand raised to strike him. As the hand came down, Victor felt a swell of anger, fear, and the overwhelming desire to protect the boy. He knew he couldn’t be there to protect him, but he wanted to. He wanted to protect him so much he felt an ache in his bones. Then, the wolf lunged at the hand, biting into it and stopping the violence, redirecting it to himself. Victor felt the pain the wolf incurred as the large man threw it against the wall. The pain jarred him into almost losing the connection, but he hung onto it vehemently.

 

The assailant didn’t seem too pleased with the interference and turned back to the precious boy, striking him and painting Victor’s vision red as he lost the connection. He pushed his feelings into the wolf, hugging the yelping Makkachin as he tried to protect his dear one. He felt pain across his body, but the red splotches in his vision seemed to be fading. The danger seemed to pass as fear was soon replaced with pain and sadness in Makkachin’s actions. Victor cooed at the dog trying to calm down even as black seeped into his vision.

 

After that, Victor reserved his vision times for whenever red came over his vision. He didn’t feel anymore pain from the connection, but he was concerned with the increasing amounts of red he saw. Each time he checked in on his lover, it was always the angry man from the first time. Most of the time they seemed to be at the skating rink, but as time wore on and Victor had no way to identify where his lover was in Japan, the man seemed to crop up at more and more locations in his lover’s life.

 

*****

Victor did his best not to let his soulmate’s tragedy affect the life he was building for the man. In his heart he had faith that the man made for him would never die before they met. He clung to this belief as he made preparations to take his soulmate into his life. Victor was already mostly fluent in Japanese, French, English, and German with Russian as his native language. He was already beginning to work through more complex skating and dance routines and he knew it wouldn’t be long before he was competitive in skating. No matter what it took he was determined to bring his soulmate into a very comfortable and happy life to make up for his inability to protect him in his most vulnerable years.

 

He found his first opportunity to directly enrich his love’s life through what he would later call the destined English test.


	2. When Life is Full

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuri's POV

Yuuri had always felt that he was a blessed child. When he was born he had a silver wolf appear in his crib with him. When he turned four, it was the first time that his wolf disappeared from his side. He was just playing with a car toy but Vicchan was sleeping right in the middle of the playmat. “Vicchan, go away!” he huffed. To his surprise, the wolf disappeared as if it had never been there. Terror pulsed through the child as he lost his longtime companion with just a single sentence. 

 

“M-Momma!!!!!” He screamed as he began patting the area where Vicchan had been. “Momma! Momma! Vicchan went away! Momma! I sent Vicchan away! Help! Momma!” His mother’s heavy footsteps shook through the floorboards as she raced across the inn to get to her distressed child, sweeping him off the floor and checking him over for damage. 

 

“What happened? Vicchan is gone? What do you mean you sent him away?” 

 

“I-I just wanted to play, b-but Vicchan was sleeping in the way a-and I told him to g-go away! A-And he dis-pe-peared! Momma where Vicchan!?” he bawled, clinging to his mother. The woman let out a sigh of relief as the tension left her back. 

 

“Oh Yuuri… is that all? It’s okay, it’s okay. Just wish Vicchan back.” The child nodded, trying to get the words out, but was unable. To his shock, a wet nose touched his hand and a wet tongue licked at his tears. 

 

“V-Vicchan?! Vicchan! Vicchan! You’re back!” he sobbed, throwing himself at the wolf pup. Hiroko gave her child a few minutes to calm down before she pulled her son and his pup into her lap. 

 

“Yuuri, I think we should have a talk about Vicchan now.” The boy hugged the pup closer, looking up at his mother with trepidation in his eyes. 

 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to take Vicchan away. I think it’s time you learned what Vicchan is. He’s not a normal pet like your friends have, okay?” The tiny mop of soft midnight hesitantly bobbed before his mother continued. 

 

“Your Vicchan is a sign that you are someone’s soulmate. Only about 10% of the world has a soulmate and they say they’re chosen when two souls are so perfect for one another that they create a bond that can overcome any distance. Vicchan is the representation of your soulmate’s current feelings. When Vicchan is happy, that means your soulmate is happy.”

 

“When Vicchan is sad that means my soolmate is sad?”

 

“Soulmate, yes. Your soulmate can also feel what you feel through their own version of Vicchan with them.”

 

“So they just felt how scared I was?” 

 

“Yes dear, your soulmate probably just got very scared and worried when you felt that way.” 

 

“Oh… then where did Vicchan go?”

 

“Vicchan went back to your heart. When you don’t want him to be out here with you, he’s always curled up napping in your heart.”   
  


“O-Oh… then he hasn’t been inside of me for a long time… Is it bad to have him out so much?”

 

“Not at all! In some countries they want you to hide your familiar, but that’s not how Japan feels. Here we encourage soulmates to keep their familiars out as much as possible so that everyone who doesn’t have a soulmate will know that you’re already taken and that you have true love waiting for you.”

 

“Won’t people want to try to take Vicchan from me?”

 

“Well, people can’t take Vicchan from you. If you ever get too far from him, he’ll just disappear and go back to your heart. But, that doesn’t mean you can treat Vicchan bad. If Vicchan ever gets hurt, it’s not you who gets hurt, but your soulmate.”

 

“Wh-wha-? Why would they get hurt?! They aren’t even here!” 

 

“Because Vicchan is a little piece of their soul. When that piece gets hurt, it spreads back to the owner of the soul.”

 

“Then how can Vicchan live in my heart? Shouldn’t he be in his owner’s heart?”

 

“Well, you and your soulmate are made for each other. That means that it’s just as comfy to live in your heart as it is to live in their heart.” 

 

“O-Oh… then I’m gonna take good care of Vicchan!”

 

“Also, Yuuri, at some point you may start to have moments where you see what your soulmate sees. Don’t worry, it’s completely normal. As you two get older you’ll be able to see more and more just by wanting to see. At some point you’ll be able to see everything they see and it’s so that you can find them, okay?”

 

“Okay… does that hurt?” 

 

“Of course not! They’re your soulmate, the person to bring you happiness. It won’t hurt at all.” 

 

After that Yuuri was more purposeful about how he let things get to him, doing his best to calm down when things got to be a bit much. His soulmate would often send him warm feelings, even when he didn’t need them. It made him comfortable and happy, but he never really understood why he’d been picked. When he looked in the mirror, he didn’t look like the cool kids at school and he didn’t think his parents looked like the cool adults either. 

 

“I don’t know why you’re worried about this Yuuri-kun. Your mama said you were made for them so obviously they’re going to think you’re the handsomest guy out there!”

 

“But… Yuu-chan, what if they  _ don’t? _ What do I do if they think I’m ugly?”

 

“Well, Yuuri-kun… maybe you’re like an ugly duckling?”

 

“Yuuko!” Yuuri gasped out, feeling hurt instantly. 

 

“N-No! Don’t get the wrong idea! I read a book where a duckling was called ugly by its siblings, but it turns out that it was a swan! No one could see how pretty it was because it was still a baby and there were no other swan babies around. If there’d been swan babies around it wouldn’t have been called ugly, it’d be called a swan. M-Maybe because you’re trying to do things that you aren’t made for you don’t look cool, but if you did things that you were made for you’d be cool!” Yuuko hoped her placation had worked. She didn’t like her best friend being upset, but she didn’t know what else to tell him.

 

“L-Like what?”

 

“W-Well you keep trying to play kickball with the boys b-but maybe you should try dance! I-I mean, just try it! I go to dance class with this cool lady called Minako-sensei and I’m sure she could make you look even cooler!” 

 

“D-Do you think so? C-Can I come sit in on your class today?” 

 

“Yeah! I bet she’d even teach you a few things before you leave.”

 

After that, Yuuri found himself addicted to the freedom that came in the rigid training and fluid motions of dance. Even though the dancing was hard, it was very rewarding to him. After all, what was cooler than a graceful dancer?  He was doing warm-ups in the dance studio one day when his vision suddenly changed and he saw a brighter studio, snow falling outside the window and then the vision went black for a moment before showing a tall child standing in front of a mirror, beautiful silver hair and piercing blue eyes staring at the male’s form as he was tapped into the correct position by an angry older woman with a ruler. The ethereal being just squared his shoulders and closed his eyes again.  _ To try again _ , Yuuri thought. 

 

It was the most exhilarating moment for Yuuri as he regained his own vision, Vicchan staring right back into his eyes with the same determined look as his soulmate. “Yuuri? Yuuri are you alright?” Minami asked him, breaking the spell by waving her hand in front of his face. 

 

“Y-Yeah… I just… I just saw my soulmate! H-He was dancing! Like I am! He was so pretty! Minami-sensei! He was so incredibly pretty! He’s tall, too! A-And it was snowing! It was snowing there!”

 

“Oh, really? Was there any writing anywhere in your vision? Maybe we can figure out where your soulmate is if you saw what kind of writing it was.” The boy deflated a little. 

 

“I didn’t see any writing. He was in a dance studio, but I didn’t see any writing in there.” 

 

“Well, next time you get a vision, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out! Don’t be discouraged. Come on, you want your soulmate to dance with you someday, right? You should practice so you can impress him when you meet, right?” 

 

“Yeah! I’m gonna surprise him so much!” 

 

*****

The next time Yuuri had a vision wasn’t for another year and a half. The vision hit him when he was on a run with Vicchan around the neighborhood. The beautiful male was watching a video of him skating in an ice rink. Yuuri watched as the recorded version of his soulmate went into a jump and missed his landing, hitting the ice hard. The video reversed a little before a thin finger tapped a spot on the screen that seemed to be pointing out where he’d failed to pull his leg back in enough to stick the landing. The world shifted a little and his soulmate was looking at an angry man who nodded before saying something and pointing back to the ice. 

 

As the vision began to fade, Yuuri noticed a flag hanging on the wall and tried to memorize the pattern. When he could see his surroundings again he was sitting on the sidewalk with his face buried into Vicchan’s fur. A few gasping moments later he was able to stand, ignoring the gathering crowd as he began sprinting for home. He took care not to slam the doors as he ran into the inn he lived at, going to his father and tugging on his pantleg. 

 

“Dad! Dad! What flag has red white and blue bars!”

 

Toshiya looked at his son for a moment before smiling. “Did you share your soulmate’s vision again?” The cute child bobbed his head quickly, waiting for his father to answer his question. 

 

“Well, there’s a lot of flags with that coloration. Let’s get a book out and see which flag it was.” A few minutes later and Yuuri pointed at the Russian flag. 

 

“Dad! This one! This is the flag in my soulmate’s skating rink!”

 

“Skating rink? Did he pick up skating?”

 

“Yeah! He was watching a video of his earlier skating and he fell, but he was really pretty before that!”

 

“Would you like to try skating, Yuuri?” his mother asked as she joined the two, drying her hands on an apron. 

 

“Do you think I can? I like dancing and I don’t want to give that up…”

 

“Did you know that they call skating dancing on ice?” The child’s pout and concern changed to elation at the connection between the two sports. 

 

“I wanna skate!” he declared as he jumped up. His parents watched him with a fond smile as they prepared themselves to see their son even less. 

 

*****

It hadn’t even been a month later that Yuuri was working through getting his balance skating when he was assaulted by red covering his vision and Vicchan fell to the ice before being absorbed into his body for the first time in years. The boy panicked and would have fallen if not for his kind coach whisking him off his feel and carrying him to the sidelines. He could hear yelling, but his mind was in too much panic to really understand what was going on. All he could comprehend was that something bad had happened to his soulmate. 

 

The next thing that registered in Yuuri’s mind was being at home in bed with his mother rubbing his stomach calmly. “Good morning Yuuri… Do you remember what happened yesterday?”

 

The boy blinked as the memories came back to him slowly. “Yeah… I was skating with the teacher… and then everything got red and… Vicchan fell! Where is Vicchan!? He disappeared! Is my soulmate dead, mom?!” 

 

“I don’t know dear. Calm down. You need to think about wanting to see Vicchan. If he comes out then your soulmate is still alive.”

 

“And if he doesn’t?” he asked nervously. 

 

“Just try. It’s rare for a soulmate to die before even meeting their other half.” The child nodded, his cinnamon eyes watering as he wished with all his might that Vicchan would come back to him. He heard his mother gasp and opened his eyes. There at the foot of the bed was a sleeping wolf pup. It looked exhausted and pained, but it snuggled into Yuuri like it was pleased to see him. The boy calmed down and hugged the wolf close, terrified to lose his precious pup. 

 

“Don’t leave me Vicchan. You have to live. Don’t leave me. I was made for you,” he whispered as he cried into the soft fur. The wolf curled into him, nuzzling him to comfort the boy.

 

*****

After Vicchan had disappeared that time, Yuuri had been able to see the visions a little more frequently and at more opportune times. Sometime when he was in class and bored he’d find himself thinking about his soulmate and wondering what he was up to just to find that he was able to see what he was doing. He usually had to wait until afternoon classes in order to see anything. After a particular vision when it seemed like his soulmate was just waking up, he found that his soulmate was 6 hours behind him in time. 

 

Sometimes he would force himself to stay up late just so he could peek at what his soulmate had for dinner and only once did he see the male eating with anyone in what he found to be his house. The thought that his soulmate didn’t have a good family life made Yuuri sad, but he would often see his soulmate surrounded by lots of people who laughed and seemed genuinely happy to be around him. He also found out that the evening was when his soulmate did a lot of his studying. From what Yuuri could make out the boy seemed to be studying a lot of languages. 

 

Yuuri took a page from his soulmate’s book and began studying more English the the schools required and Russian to be able to talk to him in his native tongue. His progress wasn’t very fast because he was studying alone, but it seemed to be better than just leaving it all to his soulmate. 

 

*****

It was a bit of a shock when Yuuri’s skating teacher had taken a fall on the ice and had to retire from training while going through rehabilitation. Yuuri found himself alone on the ice more than a few times and felt sadness permeate him as he failed to get any better without someone to help guide him. When his parents announced that his estranged uncle was coming to replace the old teacher, he felt hope flourish in his chest once more. 

 

The first few weeks weren’t bad, but his uncle seemed to watch him much closer than his last teacher. He would often find himself on the ice with the man as he instructed Yuuri to move in ways that the young boy felt weren’t quite right for him. The movements he was being told to do were very uncomfortable and he felt that he would injure something if he stayed in those positions while attempting jumps. 

 

After a month he started skipping his practices with his uncle and began practicing on his own with books as his teacher. That’s how he found himself face to face with his uncle one evening when his whole world seemed to break to pieces. 

 

“Yuuri!” the angry man screamed as he stomped down to the ice. “Get off that ice! Stop skipping out on your lessons and practicing in secret! You’re going to injure yourself!” 

 

The boy jumped at the loud entrance and scrambled to get off at the other exit. Exactly what he didn’t want to see was his uncle racing over to him. “Why don’t you ever listen to me? Do you think you can do better without me?!” the man screamed as he shook the boy some.

 

“Y-Yeah! I can! I’ve learned a lot from the books! The way you tell me to pull my arms in is wrong! The book even says so!” 

 

“The  **BOOK** can’t tell you anything! It’s written by idiots who don’t know enough about the sport to do anything! Stop filling your head with this trash and just do what I tell you to do!”

 

“It’s not trash! Uncle I don’t know why you think it’s safe!” 

 

“It’s  _ safe _ because I  _ said so!!! _ ” The irate man lifted his hand to strike Yuuri. He felt the terror, anger, and swell of protectiveness from his soulmate as Vicchan lunged at that hand, intercepting it. 

 

“Vicchan!”

 

“Fucking mutt!” the man screamed as he threw the small wolf into the barrier wall. Before Yuuri could worry about Vicchan, that hand came back down on him, smacking him so hard he fell to the ground. “And another thing! Don’t you fucking know better than to be taking a beast out on the ice with you?! Fucker will shed on the ice and make it harder to skate! Now  _ that’s _ unsafe!” The man began kicking the wolf during his tirade, seeming to take glee in the yelping and scrabbling the wolf pup did. 

 

“ **_Don’t!!!_ ** V-Vicchan! Vicchan! Come back!” The wolf disappeared right before the man’s foot made contact. The violent foot met the barrier wall instead and jarred the man as he tried to make sense of what had happened. Yuuri began running away, barring himself in the locker room to cry until the man had left. He could feel his precious soulmate trying to calm him down, but it only hurt him more. He knew that beautiful man had to be in a world of pain worse than his cheek felt. 

 

When he got home that night, he found his mother nursing his uncle’s injured foot. The scathing glare he received from the man only made him shrink and hide even as his mother came over to him. He shook her off, ignoring her calls and locked himself in his room. It was only after he’d shoved his chair under the doorknob that he pulled Vicchan out and curled around the ailing pup. 

 

*****

Despite his uncle’s attempts to badger him back onto the ice with him at the same time, Yuuri dodged him time and time again, trying to avoid any and all contact with the man. He still practiced his skating and watched as many shows and videos of various skaters as possible to improve himself, but he no longer relied on a coach to teach him anything. 

 

As time wore on, his uncle began figuring out his schedule and cornering him here and there, yelling at him and hitting him, telling him to come back to lessons. After the third time he no longer resisted and just quietly took the beating not allowing Vicchan out to deal with the matter. He never allowed the man to drag him back to the rink and would stubbornly wait until he was asleep to even attempt skating. It wasn’t too hard to get the early morning practice in since the man seemed to drink until 3AM and fall asleep. 

 

The next year was hellish with constantly changing his schedule and avoiding questions from his family on the times he was beaten, but he endured it all with visions from his precious soulmate to cheer him on. He could push through the pain, fear, and boredom as he got glimpses here and there of his soulmate dancing with that same strict woman, skating with that angry pudgy man, and laughing with his friends. 

 

More than once he’d found the man staring at his reflection in the mirror, sometimes at home and other times just when he was out and about. It made him wonder if his soulmate really liked his own reflection, but something told him it might just be for him to get to see his face. Yuuri felt that his soulmate was becoming more and more swanlike over the years, but he always wondered if his soulmate would think the same of him. 

 

He shook his head and wrote his name on what he would later call his cupid English test.


	3. Life is Fluff, Life is Warmth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluff, Fluff, Angst, Fluff. Victor POV

After a maddening year of studying, connecting, dancing, skating, and pushing as much support to his soulmate as possible, Victor had finally achieved the one thing he wanted if he couldn’t extract his soulmate from the bad place he was in: he could finally see what his love was seeing without restrictions. He did his best to watch and figure out his lover’s name but it was surprisingly hard. The boy didn’t seem to look at him name too often, but after a week of almost obsessively watching, he found the boy’s name.

 

“Katsuki Yuuri!” he gasped happily as he watched the boy write his name on a test. He watched avidly as the boy completed his test, cringing when the boy missed a couple of questions. “I wish I could help him…” He saw Yuuri go back to those questions and watched his eyes flicker to the tiny wolf pup sitting on his desk as he began pointing at answers. Victor lit up when he put his pencil on the right English verb and the wolf pup wagged his tail happily. Yuuri did that with the other two he had missed and then handed in his test before pulling out a blank notebook.

 

_You’re watching, aren’t you, Soulmate-kun?_ All Victor could do was send his feelings through the wolf and hope that Yuuri understood. Of course, he understood right away.

 

_I think you can watch for longer than I can. I can only manage about ten minutes now._ The wolf pup nodded to him in a way that shocked both of them for a moment, making the pup jolt a little.

 

_I didn’t know Vicchan could do that._

 

_Soulmate-kun, do you think you could record some of your skating? I don’t have a coach right now and I want to skate better but I can’t get very far on my own. You look like you’re a bit older than me and you look like you’re better at skating than me._

 

The wolf nodded again, wagging its tail even more happily. Victor wondered how his soulmate had seemed to name the dog after him. _Maybe he’s seen my name?_ He mused as Yuuri continued writing.

 

_I want to use my ten minutes to watch that, if you don’t mind. We can set up a time that works for you. I know you’re about six hours behind me so I’m not really sure when you’d like to do it._ Yuuri drew a clock face and looked at the small pup he had on his desk. He then wrote “Yuuri’s time” and “Soulmate-kun’s time” on the page below it.

 

Victor thought on it for a moment before pushing his will towards Vicchan. A small paw tapped at the six on the clock and then sat on the words “Soulmate-kun’s Time.” When an AM or PM was added to the choices the pup headed to the AM and sat as well.

 

_So, at 6AM Soulmate-kun’s time we’ll watch your skating video?_ A quick glance at Vicchan showed confirmation. _I’ll see if Yuuko-chan will record me so I can show you what I’m doing since I usually skate when you’re asleep now. Then we can improve together that way._ Vicchan began dancing around the desk for a moment before the teacher came over and the pup laid down with a pair of cute eyes at the grumpy teacher.

 

It was obvious that his soulmate had said something to the teacher, but he couldn’t hear it. The teacher glanced at the page and saw mostly the clock face and just sighed.   


Victor wished he was better at lip reading when he watched the teacher say something and then walk away. He knew there was no helping it since Japanese was one of the harder languages to lip read, but he still wished he knew what she was saying.

 

The wolf gave a compliant tail wag before looking back up at Yuuri. Yuuri just smiled and petted the pup for a moment before writing to Victor again. _It’s good to finally communicate with you, Soulmate-kun, even if it is pretty one-sided. Oh!_ _How do you like this? I am teaching Russian to myself. Am I writing it good? _ Victor chuckled at his lover’s attempts at the Russian language and sentence structure. He pushed the pup to tap a “G” on the other page followed by tapping an “O” twice. The final letter was a “D”. When Yuuri saw that, he closed his eyes blushing, happiness and embarrassment flooding the link between the two. It made Victor even happier.

 

Their little moment was cut off when the bell rang and Yuuri glanced at the clock before sighing and scribbling out another quick note. _I have to go now, Soulmate-kun. It’s also class time for you so focus on your class, not mine. I’ll see you tomorrow, 6AM your time._

 

*****

Victor was up at 5:30 the next day, dressing quickly and rushing to the TV where he had placed his previous night’s skate tape. When he saw it was still there, he grinned and tossed it into his bag before heading off to the skating rink. Helga had long since stopped trying to get up with him and make it to the beginning of his skate practice. Instead, the inattentive nanny just showed up at the rink 10 minutes before practice was over and helped him dress for school, slurping down coffee like her life depended on it.

 

He wasn’t scheduled in for another 20 minutes when he got there at 5:55, shivering but grinning in anticipation that his love would be joining him in only five short and long minutes. “Morning Coach Yakov! I’m borrowing the TV like I said yesterday!” he rambled as he set down his bag and grabbed out the tape. It took only one small thought to summon Makkachin from her slumber in his body to his awaiting hand, a palm-sized poodle writhing excitedly at him.

 

“ _Is Yuuri watching yet?_ ” he asked the poodle in Japanese. The poodle drooped her head, but couldn’t stop her wagging tail. His Yuuri had to be happy, but not yet watching. “ _Well, he does need to be released for lunch before her can watch, right? Ah~! I’m so excited Makkachin! Yuuri is going to be watching me!!!_ ”

 

“If I didn’t know that was an actual language I’d think you were possessed by the devil, Vitya. When did you get so fluent in another language?” Victor looked over at Yakov and grinned fiendishly.

 

“I’ll have you know I studied really REALLY hard to be able to speak my soulmate’s native language! I’m just as good as him now, I’m sure of it!”

 

“Oh? Can you read a newspaper in Japanese now?”

 

“N-No I can’t… But neither can my soulmate so it’s fine!” Yakov laughed at his student, but stopped short when Victor puffed out his cheeks and fired off in French and then in German.

 

“Coach Yakov! Don’t underestimate a man who is in love! **I learned French and German just in case Yuuri wants to travel around the world!** ”

 

“Hnnn, you learned French and German as well? What else do you know?”

 

“Russian, French, German, Japanese, and of course English _because if you don’t know English you can’t go to famous international events!_ But I can’t read all of these languages as well as I can speak them. Especially Japanese, but I’m working on it!”

 

An alarm went off on his wrist watch and Victor glanced down to see it was the appointed time. “Gotta go Coach Yakov! My soulmate may be watching now!”

 

The boy turned back to the TV and put the tape on, pausing it as he looked back at Makkachin. “ _Yuuuuuriii~!”_ he purred, grinning as he pulled out a piece of paper. On it he had written in Japanese and Russian, _Yuuri are you there? Yes or no?_ He watched as Makkachin panted happily at him waiting for something to happen before snapping to attention. The dog walked to the paper and booped its nose against the Russian word for yes.

 

Victor let out an excited squeal as he he tossed his hands up before grabbing up his pen and writing in his best Japanese, _Then let’s begin!_ He could barely sit still as he turned on his own skating program, watching it with rapt attention for his soulmate to watch. He wanted to show him everything and make the man proud of him. There was no way he wasn’t going to give him what he asked for.

 

He found himself ignoring the hushed whispers from his rinkmates asking if he’d lost it. He even ignored the person who touched his shoulder. It was only when one of them put his hand in front of his vision that Victor reacted by snatching the hand and calmly, firmly moving it out of the way.   


“Don’t go ruining my good mood. I only get a few minutes each day  with my soulmate watching through my eyes. You’re not worthy of being in my line of sight when he wants to use my vision for something else. Talk to me after I’m done.” His voice has been calm and relaxed, but the hint of violence lurking in the words had the man reeling back like he’d been hit. This was their up and coming star and Victor had never acted in such a scary manner, but it seemed he was dead serious about his soulmate.

 

When the ten minutes were almost up, he paused the video and scrawled a beautiful note to his love. _Thank you for spending your time with me. Let me know if there’s anything you want to watch next time. I’ll spend the next five minutes watching you, then I have to get to practice._

 

Makkachin barked at him and nuzzled his hand before losing the tinge of intelligence that his love seemed to be infusing her with. He quickly closed his eyes as he set to petting the dog.

 

He was assaulted with the vision of a bright sunny afternoon, the likes of which his home in St. Petersburg hadn’t seen in a long while. He pushed Vicchan to bark, grinning in person when the line of sight moved from the beautiful blue sky to the notebook that Yuuri had messily taken notes on. It was obvious that the male had tried writing his notes with his eyes closed as he watched the performance. He read as much as he could in those brief moments before Yuuri closed his eyes with a huff, irritation coming through the poodle Victor held.

 

He pushed Vicchan to comfort the male and it wasn’t long before Yuuri was nodding and opening a new page in his book to begin writing to him. _Thank you for that! I will show you my progress tomorrow. If you want to see anything from me, be sure to tell me when I’m watching. Oh! Do you have internet where you are? We’re getting DSL at the inn soon and mom and dad said I could get an email address to chat with you on. It might be a little easier to answer an email than to hope we catch each other watching._ Victor whistled at his soulmate's intelligent suggestion and made a mental note to himself to check on his favorite places having internet and a computer that he could use for his darling soulmate.

 

_Ah, but I also have one thing I want you to show me tomorrow, Soulmate-kun. You haven’t looked at your name when I’m looking. I want to know what your name is so please show that to me tomorrow, okay?_ Victor was floored by that knowledge, shock racing from him to Vicchan with a comical jaw drop on the wolf pup. _Is that a bad shock or a good shock?_

 

Victor just shook Vicchan’s head and huffed, laying down in the male’s palm as if to say move on. _Soulmate-kun, I hope_ _I make_ _you have a good day! I need to eat lunch and get back to my studies. Be safe!_ Victor saw the male scratch out the words on the paper and change them, worry creeping into his mind briefly before he shook it away and pushed love and support towards the obviously anxious boy. Yakov approached him again as he opened his eyes.

 

“Good. Don’t need you biting anyone when you’re the one about to be late to practice.” The boy nodded and headed to the locker room, sighing as he pulled on his skates.

 

“Georgi, you were the one who came over earlier, right? I’m sorry I snapped at you. My time with my soulmate is limited and very special - I can’t waste even a moment of it,” he apologized, rubbing his old scar with a fond smile.

 

“W-Well, you didn’t injure me and I knew you had a soulmate so I should have guessed that your weird actions were based on that. Sorry for interrupting… Why don’t we have a skating competition to make up for it today?”

 

“Sounds like fun! But don’t think that because you’ve had a couple of years headstart on me that you get to go easy on me! I’m going to skate circles around you and show you my skills I’ve been working diligently on for my Yuuri!” he declared before tightening his skates and heading for the ice.

 

*****

The next morning Victor woke up and rushed back to the skating rink, writing out his note to his beloved before the appointed time and nodded before beginning his morning stretches to help work off his excited energy. HIs rinkmates knew now not to disturb the child as he prepared. The alarm on his wrist buzzed and he turned it off before looking at Makkachin, intelligence springing to life in her eyes. Victor grabbed his note and began reading it slowly.

 

_Good morning Yuuri! I hope you slept well. I have an email address now and I’ll stare at it at the end of the note. My name is Victor Nikiforov._

 

Victor could feel his Yuuri’s embarrassment and shock through the bond, and made sure to keep his eyes on his name for a little longer before moving on, giving his lover a chance to savor the moment like he had done when he first discovered Yuuri’s name.

 

_I don’t know how you named your familiar after me without knowing my name, but it makes me very happy!_ The embarrassment flowed even deeper and it only made the older male happier. He made sure to push those feelings to Vicchan for Yuuri’s enjoyment.

 

_I do have a request for you today. When it’s 6PM today your time, please go look in the mirror for five minutes! You never look in the mirror and I love seeing your beautiful face. I don’t know why you don’t do it more, but I want to see you more._

 

He was a bit miffed at the depression that began twinging through the connection, but he wouldn’t let the boy off. When he finished reading he stared at his email address until Makkachin barked. With a chuckle the male reached over and patted the pup’s head. “Let’s get to watching the skate then!” He spent his lover’s remaining time watching his practice from the day before, wincing as he watched the fall he had taken. He played that part over a couple of times, pointing at his leg to show that his mistake was right there.

 

When his time was up and Makkachin went back to her normal self, Victor took to looking at Vuuri’s vision, pushing Vicchan to bark to alert the male that he was watching.

 

Yuuri wasn’t outside this time, but in a room with a TV on wheels. He pushed the tape into the VCR and pushed play, showing his skating from the previous day. It was obvious that Yuuri had attempted some of Victor’s moves from the day before but couldn’t quite get it right. Just as Yuuri had done the day before, Victor took notes with his eyes closed, pinpointing which moves he needed to do over a few more times for the male’s reference. The camera bobbed up and down when Yuuri landed a double flip and Victor giggled at the idea of his camerawoman jumping for joy.

 

When the video ended, Yuuri grabbed his notebook, his scrawled blindly written notes from this morning briefly showing before he flipped the page. _I’ll look in the mirror tonight at 6PM my time. I don’t think I’m beautiful, but if you like seeing my face then I won’t say no. After all, you seemed to be looking in a mirror a lot, too. I really enjoyed seeing you, even when you were out with friends._

 

_Ah, and the thing about naming Vicchan after you, I don’t know. I just remember ever since I could speak he was Vicchan. Mom always said I named him so… Maybe it’s something to do with the bond?_

 

_I’ll send you an email once I get mine set up and we can talk a little more frequently from there. Have a good practice and be safe. I’ll know if you aren’t._ Victor chuckled as he pushed Vicchan to lick Yuuri’s hand before he left the connection to get ready for the day.

 

“Vitya, your soulmate likes to  watch you skate, yeah?” Victor looked up at his coach before smiling, nodding enthusiastically.

 

“Yes he does! He also skates! He just showed me the footage from his practice yesterday and he was struggling to recreate some of the moves I did. I plan on running through them again today with Mila taping them for him.”

 

“Shouldn’t you leave this to his coach? He might not be ready for those kinds of moves. Isn’t he younger than you, too? His body probably isn’t ready for any jumps if he’s really young.”

 

“But he doesn’t have a coach. He asked me to show him my move so that he can learn.”

 

“If you’re going to keep this up maybe you should take videos of the basics for him and build up from there. If he starts learning advanced jumps and spins before he’s got the basics down he may hurt himself. If he’s a lot younger than you you’re only hurting him by showing him your better jumps, especially if he starts trying them without a coach around to help him if he gets hurt.” Victor felt his heart drop when his coach pointed out the reality Victor hadn’t thought of. The heartbreak must have shown on his face because Yakov smacked  his back and nodded.

 

“I’ll tell you what to skate when you wanna record for your soulmate. Until then, work hard on landing that double axel!” Victor smiled up at his coach as he rubbed away the beginnings of tears from his eyes.

 

“Yes Coach Yakov!”

 

*****

Victor felt like the next three days had been a heaven filled with his precious soulmate and his adorable emotions. He would feel the embarrassment and affection radiate through the bond at random points in the day and it it only made him happier than ever. It seemed like the time when Yuuri was being haunted by the angry man were just a bad dream.

 

But reality had a way of crashing down around them. Victor was on his way to his language tutors after school when he was hit with splotches of red and a sharp pain in his chest. He fell to his knees, struggling hard to stay awake and make the connection to his soulmate. It was dark for a moment before he could see the angry man standing over yuuri, a bottle of alcohol in his hand. The surroundings were steamy, but familiar. It took a moment for Victor to recognize that this was the onsen area that Yuuri’s family ran.

 

The man was shouting something at Yuuri before kicking him in the chest, making the vision go black once more. The image came back quickly, tinged with red as Yuuri looked at the injured Vicchan taking a kick to the stomach. Victor coughed as the pain hit him, but he pushed his anger at the man into the wolf, willing it to overpower the man and stop this terrible farce.

 

He watched as the silver wolf pounced on the man, slamming him into the stone flooring before Yuuri called the wolf back, not allowing Victor to take care of the problem. It turned out that his continued intervention wasn’t necessary. The man didn’t move and Yuuri was able to run away, crying and sobbing as he quickly dressed and ran to his parents. Victor held out until he could see his soulmate in his mother’s arms. Then, as relief washed over him at seeing the boy safe, he gave into the darkness begging him to come.

 

*****

 

The next thing Victor could see was a blinding white ceiling. It reminded him of the time he’d had that skating accident and wondered vaguely if that was what had happened again.

 

“Victor Nikiforov, you’re up.” The boy slowly slid his eyes over to the doctor standing next to his bed.

 

“What happened?” he rasped as his throat seemed to burn.

 

“I would like to ask you that. Your nanny said you just started screaming and fainted on the street. We couldn’t find anything wrong with you physically, though.”

 

The events of the previous day came rushing back to Victor and he gasped, immediately trying to connect to his soulmate’s vision to see if he was alright. He was concerned when all he saw was black. To his relief, though, Makkachin gave a small ‘bwoof’ at his feet and assured him that his soulmate was still alive.

 

“M-My soulmate… He’s got some stuff going on in his home life. Whenever his familiar, Vicchan, gets hurt, I feel the pain. Yesterday, the guy who hurts my soulmate cornered him and hurt him and Vicchan. It was too much for me to handle so I must have passed out. I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s not your fault, Victor, but it’s concerning that someone would dare to touch a familiar. They’re protected by international law, doubly when the owner is a minor. Do you have any information on this abuser?”

 

Victor shook his head, rubbing at his temples at the headache he felt coming into focus. “No. No I don’t, but I’ll try to get some information about him from my soulmate next time.”

 

The doctor nodded and left him alone to rest. The only person who came to pick him up was his nanny. Helga looked distressed, but did her best to gather up Victor’s belongings quietly while the doctor readied his discharge papers.

 

“Is my father here?” The woman froze before shaking her head.

 

“Is he coming?” Helga looked at him with a pained look in her eyes.

 

“No… Mr. Nikiforov said you would be fine and that he had some business to attend to.” Victor went silent as he looked down at his hands, trying to remember the last time he’d even seen his father. His mood sank even lower as he thought about how alone he was in that moment with no friends, no family, and even his dear soulmate asleep and impossible to get ahold of.

 

As the cold crept into his heart, the door slammed open, a wild-eyed angry balding Russian man panting as he scoured the room for something. Then Victor was swept up into warm thick arms as a slew of vitriol fell from that familiar grumpy man.

 

“C-Coach Y-Yakov…” Victor whispered, shaking, hesitant.

 

“I’m here for you, Vitya. Even if that old man of yours isn’t, I’m here!” he swore, hugging the boy closer. The boy sobbed as he threw his arms around the man, clinging to him.

 

“I was so scared, Yakov! My soulmate! H-he’s with a bad man who hurts him and his familiar! I was so scared cuz I woke up and he wasn’t awake and-”

 

“Shh… it’s okay, Vitya. Just cry and calm down.” The man was awkward in the way he rubbed the boy’s back, but it was endearing and Victor knew that his father could never fill the void in his heart like Yakov could. He took comfort in his coach’s presence and swore silently that he would pay him back some day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy some spirit dad Yakov. Still 100% grumpy, still 100% awkward, but still 100% better dad than Artur.
> 
> Leave kudos and comments if you want!


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